00000274.htm

NOTES OF TRAVEL.

imagine to have been the other mouth of the Grot
near Avernus, but it is conjecture only, all this part
of the coast is exposed to an intense heat of the sun,
fruits are consequently in very early perfection here,
they used to have figs ripe at this Season, & Grapes
in great forwardness; at the time we were there
indeed there was no appearance of it, the year being
remarkably backward I believe all over Europe; how-
ever Barley was then ready to cut, & the Wheat had
chang'd colour, we made a little journey also on the
otherside of the Bay of Naples to Portici, where the
King has a Villa about 4 Miles out of town, the way
thither is thro' a number of small towns, & seats of
the nobility close by the Sea, for Mount Vesuvius
has not ever been able to deter people from inhabiting
this lovely coast, & as soon as ever an irruption is
well over, tho^; perhaps it has damaged, or destroy'd
the whole country for leagues round it, in some
months every thing resumes its former face, and goes
on in the old channel, that mountain lies a little
distance from Portici towards the left, divided into 2
Summits, that farthest from the Sea is rather the
largest, & highest called Monte di Somma, this has
been hitherto very innocent; the lesser one, which is
properly Vesmio, is that so terrible for it's fires; it
is better than 3 Miles to ascend & those extremely
laborious, 'twas extremely quiet at the time I saw
it: some days one *could not perceive it smoke at all,



	NOTES OF TRAVEL. imagine to have been the other mouth of the Grot near Avernus, but it is conjecture only, all this part of the coast is exposed to an intense heat of the sun, fruits are consequently in very early perfection here, they used to have figs ripe at this Season, & Grapes in great forwardness; at the time we were there indeed there was no appearance of it, the year being remarkably backward I believe all over Europe; how- ever Barley was then ready to cut, & the Wheat had chang'd colour, we made a little journey also on the otherside of the Bay of Naples to Portici, where the King has a Villa about 4 Miles out of town, the way thither is thro' a number of small towns, & seats of the nobility close by the Sea, for Mount Vesuvius has not ever been able to deter people from inhabiting this lovely coast, & as soon as ever an irruption is well over, tho^; perhaps it has damaged, or destroy'd the whole country for leagues round it, in some months every thing resumes its former face, and goes on in the old channel, that mountain lies a little distance from Portici towards the left, divided into 2 Summits, that farthest from the Sea is rather the largest, & highest called Monte di Somma, this has been hitherto very innocent; the lesser one, which is properly Vesmio, is that so terrible for it's fires; it is better than 3 Miles to ascend & those extremely laborious, 'twas extremely quiet at the time I saw it: some days one *could not perceive it smoke at all,